“Do you really think I won’t shoot because you’re in the way?” Edward said.

Yet he didn’t. He lifted the gun, as if considering firing over my shoulder at Lucas, then lowered it back to my chest, clearly not comfortable enough with his marksmanship to try for anything but a torso shot. He might not care about adding me to his body count, but he wouldn’t take the chance that, in the time it took to shoot me, Lucas could cast a spell and escape.

“Do you know what Benicio will do to you if you kill Lucas?” I said.

“Same thing everyone else wants to do. Hunt me down and kill me. Do you think I care? I stopped caring the day I came back to my hotel room and found those Cabal assassins had finished their job.”

“We—”

“I walked into that room, and do you know what I saw?” His gaze skewered mine. “Her head on the bedpost. My wife’s head on the bedpost!”

I tried to summon up some sympathy, but all I could think about were the dozens of bodies buried behind that cabin.

A soft breeze fluttered down the alley, coming from behind us. Though I didn’t dare peek over my shoulder, I knew there was a three-story wall behind Lucas. No breeze could come through that. Was I casting without knowing it? I’d done that once before, under stress. Could I do it again? But no, I couldn’t rely on magic. Not now. I plowed ahead.

“So you took what was dearest to them,” I said. “But when Benicio finds out—”

“Are you listening? Have you heard a word I’ve said? I don’t care!”

“But you wanted immortality—”

“I wanted eternal life with my wife. Without her, it doesn’t matter.”

A gust of wind whipped through the alley, making us all freeze. It came again, not so much a wind now as a quaking, as if the air itself was heaving, churning.

Edward stepped to the side fast and raised the gun at Lucas. I pitched sideways, throwing myself into his path, but the air around us vibrated so violently that I lost my balance and fell to one knee. As I twisted, the still-healing knife wounds blazed and I gasped.

“Don’t move, Paige,” Lucas said, his voice tight. “Please, don’t move.”

I shifted my eyes, straining to see Edward. He had the gun pointed at my chest.

“Don’t do this,” Lucas said. “She hasn’t done anything to you. If you let her go, I can promise you—”

Edward swung the gun toward Lucas. “Shut up.”

“Listen to him, Edward,” I said. “If you stop now, you can be with Natasha.”

“Natasha is gone!”

“No, she’s not. She’s a ghost.”

His lips twisted. “You lying bitch. You’d say anything to save him, wouldn’t you?”

He started to turn the gun on me. Then the air around us crackled and popped, and he swungthe gun back toward Lucas.

“I told you, any magic and—”

Behind Lucas, the air darkened, then the backdrop shattered, like a mirror breaking. Light streamed through. A woman’s figure appeared in the light. Edward looked up. He blinked.

“Nat—? Natasha?”

She reached for him. Edward took a slow, cautious step forward. Then suddenly, Natasha’s body jerked ramrod straight. The hole shimmered around her. Her eyes went wide and her mouth opened in a silent scream, and she tumbled back into the yawning hole, arms still stretching toward Edward.

“No!” Edward shouted.

The gun jerked, then fell from his hand as he raced for the portal. I saw the gun fall. I swear that is the first thing I saw, and in that moment I knew Lucas was safe. Then Lucas toppled backward, a dark hole in his breast pocket. Then, only then, I heard the shot echoing through the alley.

I twisted around. Lucas was still falling into the hole. The light swallowed his head, then his chest, and finally his feet.

I dove in after him.

Through the Back Door

I WAS JUMPING ON A BED, LEAPING AS HIGH AS I COULD, shrieking each time my feet struck down. Someone was singing. My mother? No, a younger voice, struggling to sing without laughing.

“Five little monkeys jumping on the bed.“Five little monkeys jumping on the bed.One fell off and bumped his head.Momma called the doctor and the doctor said,‘No more monkeys jumping on the bed!’”  

“Again!” I screamed. “Again!”

“Again?” the voice laughed. “If you break your mother’s bed, she’ll have both our hides.”

I threw my chubby fists in the air as I jumped, then lost my footing and collapsed face first into the pillows. Hands reached down to pick me up, but I pushed them back, got up and whirled around, bouncing.

“Again! Again!”

A dramatic sigh. “One more time, Paige. I mean it. This is the last time.”

I giggled, knowing this would be far from the last time.

Five little monkeys…

I groaned and the dream faded, but I could still hear the song, that same person singing it. The voice tickled a memory, but it evaporated before I could seize it.

I opened my eyes, but could see nothing. A cold, damp darkness enveloped me and I shivered. I blinked and tried to clear my fogged brain. I was lying on my side. I reached out and touched something cold but smooth and solid. As I ran my hand across it, I felt bumps and sharp edges. Rock. I was lying on rock.

Four little monkeys jumping on the bed…

I squeezed my eyes shut, but the tune kept playing in my head. What was that song? Now that I heard it, I could say every word by heart, as they bubbled up from my subconscious. An image came to mind. Me, no more than two years old, jumping on my mother’s bed as someone sang.